Comments (0)Edelstein Calls for Diaspora Relations Task Force
February 8, 2010Washington
JTA Wire Service
Israel’s minister of Diaspora affairs proposed a government-level task force to address a crisis he says is brewing between Israel and the Diaspora over pluralism.
Yuli Edelstein met this week with leaders of Jewish community groups in New York, Washington and Philadelphia.
Speaking with reporters Tuesday, he said the issue repeatedly raised was how Israel was dealing with pluralism. Concerns raised included the arrest of members of the Women at the Wall group, which prays at the Western Wall, and the gender segregation of some public buses in the fervently Orthodox sector.
“I promised that on my return that I would raise these issues with the prime minister and the Cabinet secretary, and we would think about the establishment of a team that would be in touch, officially in contact, with the leadership of the different movements and the federations to attempt to assess what can be solved, what can’t, but at least to create a dialogue, because in my opinion, we are speaking two different languages,” Edelstein told reporters at the Israeli Embassy in Washington.
“The issue is very complicated, but the fact that there is no immediate easy answer does not acquit us of seeking answers and see what we can do and how. The expression was, we love and support Israel, but it’s impossible to expect that we always be at your call without relating to these issues.”
Mumps Outbreak Strikes Orthodox Jews in N.Y.
More than 300 people in two New York State Orthodox enclaves have contracted the mumps.
The cases broke out in Monsey and New Square in Rockland County, about 25 miles from New York City, and have spread to Brooklyn and New Jersey Orthodox Jewish communities, according to The Journal News.
Most of those affected in Rockland Country are Orthodox or Chasidim; many had been vaccinated against the mumps.
The outbreak started in August in a summer camp in the Catskills for Orthodox Jewish boys. Twenty-five campers came down with the illness, the Centers for Disease Control told the newspaper.
ADL Honors Breast Cancer Activist
The Anti-Defamation League honored breast cancer activist Nancy Brinker with its Americanism Award.
Brinker, the founder and CEO of Susan G. Komen for the Cure, received the award Feb. 4 from ADL National Director Abraham Foxman at the organization’s annual dinner at The Breakers in Palm Beach, Fla.
“Nancy is a woman to be admired and emulated,” Foxman said, according to his prepared remarks. “When she sets her sights on an issue her determination, creativity, expertise and leadership come into play. Problems get solved. Success is achieved.”
Brinker, a former U.S. ambassador to Hungary, established the Komen organization following the death of her sister from breast cancer in 1980. In October the group, which has financed cancer research projects in Israel, was involved in a controversy involving the participation of Israeli doctors in a week of breast cancer activities in Cairo.
“For me, for ADL, it is very clear—the villain in this story was Egypt, not the Susan B. Komen Foundation,” Foxman said.
This story reprinted courtesy of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.